In a recent post on Pharyngula, well known atheist blogger Professor PZ Myers asked his readers not to link to some ScienceBlogsposts about Robert Lanza (MD, Scientist, Theoretician, Genius and Renegade Thinker) in case they might increase the likelihood that Google will return those links in searches for Robert Lanza.

So I’m not going to, because we all know that PZ is a prophet of the New Atheist Religion, and that his loyal followers must obey his every command.

My good friend, top code monkey and bloody nice bloke Bobbin Threadbare of Hidden Games has just released his first game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Air Cadets is a fun little 3D arcade style flying game, designed from the outset to be quick and easy to learn and play. The 3D graphics push the iPhone and iPod Touch hard, and the presentation of the game is polished and well designed, with great character and graphic design.

Bobbin has priced it at a very reasonable £2.99, and it’s available now on the iTunes App Store. For more details visit the Air Cadets web site.

Just nine days until my Dan grading, and now my left knee is so painful that I can’t put any weight on it. I’m icing it, resting it, and pinning my hopes on a fast recovery. I need to be able to start training again by the end of next week, or I’m in the pooh.

Having a baby just a few weeks before my Dan Grading is certainly proving to be something of a double edged sword. On the downside, getting to the training sessions three times a week is difficult; Edward keeps us very busy, especially at night, and a continued lack of sleep isn’t a recipe for feeling fit and alert on the mat. On the upside, with the grading only two weeks away, I’m a lot less worried about it than I expected to be at this point.

Edward is a much bigger concern at the moment, and keeps my attention firmly away aikido most of the time. This is helping me stay a lot more relaxed about the grading, as I have less time to think and fret about it. That said, I doubt this effect will continue right up to the grading. In fact I hope it won’t, as hopefully Edward will become less of a source of worry and fatigue as the weeks go by and we all settle down to a more relaxed routine.

Edward seems to have a poorly bellybutton at the moment. It’s a little swollen, and has a bit of an odour to it (nice, huh?). Elaine phoned NHS Direct this morning, and they advised us to sluice his bellybutton with warm, boiled water, dry it with a lint free cloth (not the cotton wool we’ve been using), and wait for the midwife to have a look at him when she visits tomorrow.

Edward doesn’t seem in any discomfort, but it’s worrying for us to keep seeing dried blood on his clothes; after two weeks his umbilicus should really be fully healed, especially as the cord stump dropped off after just three days.

After a quick trip to the Registry Office this afternoon, Edward James Smith now has a shiny new Birth Certificate. As we were in town already, we dropped in to Full Fat to introduce (read: show off) Edward to the folks I work with. As always when he meets new people, Edward was fast asleep, so our complaints that he is a little monster at night were met with raised eyebrows.

Today saw our introduction to the health visitor, who came to check on Edward’s progress, and make sure that we are all doing well. She was very helpful, gave us plenty of useful reading material, and reassured Elaine that she and Edward are doing extremely well.

Elaine has been struggling a little with breast feeding, and the night feeds have left her feeling tired and frustrated; the health visitor assured her that she is doing extremely well, and that Edward is thriving. In fact, when she weighed him, we were amazed to see that his weight is already up to eight pounds, a gain of twelve ounces in thirteen days, so he’s clearly getting plenty of nourishment. The health visitor was only expecting him to be back up to his birth weight, so she was very pleased with his progress.

She also told us not to worry about occasional vomiting, as this is apparently quite normal. Unfortunately, she also told us about a condition that some babies, particularly boys, can suffer from as they get older, which involves quite violent projectile vomiting. Obviously Edward was listening to her and thought this was an interesting idea, as a couple of hours after the health visitor left, he decided to have a practice run, and hosed his mum and the sofa with curdled milk.

When Edward was born, the paediatrician who examined him told us that he had a loose hip joint, and might need a splint to hold his legs in place while the joint formed properly. This was obviously a major worry, and we’ve been fretting about it for the last week or so. We had to wait until today for an ultrasound scan of Edward’s hips, and thankfully the scan showed that both of his hips joints are perfectly normal, so that’s a major weight off our minds.